Nathan's 1 year update and Silas's 2 1/2 year update

Since the boys are 18 months apart (a few days difference), it is easy to do updates on both of them. We had Nathan's 1 year dr's check up today and he is doing great! His height is 29 3/4 inches which is 51%. His head is still in the 55% percentile, so he's pretty average there. His weight was 21 lb 4 oz which is the 72 %. So he's still above average in that category. He's a pretty solid boy and is growing like a weed. I think he'll pass up Silas soon or be very close in height and weight to him. I think they are only 5 lb difference now! He is getting more brave in standing up w/o holding anything, but no steps by himself yet. Will keep you updated.

Silas is 2 1/2 years now. We just hit a milestone in that he is officially potty trained (yeah!)! I had started to try shortly after he turned 2, because he showed signs of being ready. However, it was more me pushing him and after awhile I realized I wasn't ready for that undertaking! So, the other day he asked to wear his Thomas underwear again and I was like, here we go again. I told him let's wait until tomorrow morning, figuring if he remembered, then we'd do it. Well, he did and so we started the day off in underwear and with no accidents. I did have to ask him quite a bit if he had to go potty, but he was very receptive. Well, we're a week and a half later with underwear and only a handful of accidents which upsets him more than us. So I think it is the real deal now! Thank goodness, less diapers for awhile. So overall he's doing great and he's enjoying being a big boy!

Nathan's 1st Birthday

I am still amazed my little boy is a year old. The year flew by so fast and I truly mean it. Kurt and I were reflecting about this year and the many changes that took place and the many blessings poured out upon us. We do serve a good God!

Here are some neat things about Nathan. He truly is a delight. He has such a sweet and funny demeanor about him. He loves music and can be seen clapping his hands constantly. He has a passionate love for food and can and will eat just about anything. He definitely out eats Silas by a long shot. He is a very good sleeper and even if he wakes up early, you can hear him playing in his crib which is so nice. Then when you do come in to get him, he immediately stands up and starts jumping and laughing. When you put him down at night, he has a little music toy that we push the button for so he can listen to it and as soon as you lay him down and push the button, he just starts laughing and that is the last you hear from him. He is a very fast crawler and is close to walking, but isn't confident yet. He loves his brother and if he wakes up from a nap before Silas he immediately points at Silas's door. Then when Silas finally wakes up, I put Nathan down to crawl into the room first and he goes right to Silas's bed and starts trying to crawl in it. Silas gets a kick out of that every time. I could go on, but he really has been a fun baby and I can only hope the toddler years will be just as fun! Pictures can't portray his cute personality, but here are a few from his bday party.

Nathan loves balloons, so we got some to put on his chair and a few to blow up and he had a blast! Who needs gifts?


Silas and Daddy helping him open his gifts.


When it started to play music, here's Nathan clapping. So it was a hit, thank you Jerome family!


I made his cake and cupcakes, so I had Silas decorate them. He did a really good job and was so proud of himself.




Ahhhhh....the cake! Digging in.


Here are some of the friends that we had over to enjoy the special day.


Yup, always have to cry when the cake and party are over! Poor guy was so exhausted, but a great day was had by all!

Randoms

While I have a few minutes before church and our big day with Nathan's bday celebration, I'm going to post the rest of the CA pictures that I think are pretty good so I can close the trip up.

Enjoy!


San Fransisco at the cable car museum.

Silas smelling the flowers at the wedding reception.
Nathan being goofy!





Silas loved the rides. He was even big enough to go on one of the roller coasters!

Who can resist a treat on vacation. Look at that face!
Ahhhhh....vacation!

This is my favorite. Kurt was taking the boys on a walk along the ocean and he didn't know I took this one.

The Beach

We took one morning while we were still in LA to head to the beach. It was a beautiful day and there wasn't too many people there yet, so we had a nice time. The waves did get pretty bad, so they had to put on the red flags, but by this time we were ready to head home, so it didn't affect us.

As for the beach, this helped Kurt and I realize how much more "mountain" people we are then beach people. It's always fun to visit, but not a place we'd pick to live or go on a long vacation to. It just isn't relaxing for us! Plus with young kids you constantly have to be with them and then there is the whole sand issue! Oh my, I think we brought home a ton of sand!

So a beautiful day and fun times, but a great reminder why we live where we do!

Silas loved rolling around in the sand. His diaper showed it when we got home!


Nathan wasn't so fond of the sand. He couldn't crawl in it and he wasn't really thrilled with the water (too cold), so he was ready to go!

San Diego Zoo

Zoos are nothing new to us since we are members at our zoo and go "at least" once a month! However, nothing had prepared me for how large and extensive the San Diego zoo just is. Wow! We ended up taking a busride around it because there was no way we could see everything we wanted to. Then, if there was something that interested us, we were able to walk back to that area and check it out more. Some of our favorites included the koala bears. Who can resist such cute animals! The elephant exhibit is pretty amazing by itself! I could go on, but all in all, it was definitely worth the time.

In addition to the zoo, we were blessed to be able to spend lunch with Kurt's college roommate and his new wife. They came and met us outside the zoo and took us to a nice restaurant within walking distance. It was great to meet them and get to know them. Since they don't have kids yet, they were troopers putting up with ours, but I think all in all it was a good time. That evening, we were also blessed to be able to eat out with my grad school roommate and her husband. The kids were pretty fried by the evening, so I think Alison and Josh got the worst deal out of it. However, they are expecting their first child in December, so they were very gracious and understanding of the whole situation. It was so nice to see familiar faces in an unfamiliar city and enjoy some fellowship with friends.

Here are some pictures from the zoo.

Here was Silas on our bus trip.
Daddy and Silas in front of the koala exhibit.

The hippo was one of our favorites also.
Silas being goofy!

The elephant exhibit.
Yes, they even have elevators so you can get up to the higher exhibits. It was incredible!

It is still hard for me to believe that we have to go to a petting zoo to enjoy animals I grew up with, but Silas had a great time.

SeaWorld

I'm going to skip ahead just a bit and go to our Seaworld experience since I'm still trying to get some pictures off of my camera from the LA area. Anyways, after we left LA, we went to San Diego for a few days. We spent one full day at Seaworld and one full day at the San Diego zoo, so it was a busy, but fun time.

Unfortunately again, it was record breaking temperatures, so watching some of the shows in the sun was just miserable, but it's something you just have to do if you go to Seaworld. So we experienced it, but after only a few hours of being there, we were all pretty miserable. We decided to leave the park and get the boys to nap and then come back in the evening. That was the best decision we made! We got back to Seaworld around 5:00 pm and the temperature was still very warm, but manageable! I wasn't sure how long the boys would last, but what troopers we were! I think we finally left the park around 9:30....Wow! I did bring their pj's and we put them on before we left, so both boys were asleep in the car and all we had to do was get them into our motel room and to bed!

I think aside from the shows, the kids had an absolute blast at the kid zone area in Seaworld. There was an obstacle course that Silas (and Kurt) ventured in. Nathan and I played in the toddler zone and he just had a blast. After Silas was done, he came over and they both played for a long time. We actually had to literally drag them out in order to go home. It was an amazing time by all and we left the park feeling like we definitely got our money's worth!


Enjoying the starfish exhibit.
Silas even got brave and started to try and touch them by himself.
We rode the sky ride so we could see the whole park from above.
Here's the obstacle course that Silas enjoyed.
Nathan enjoying the toddler area.

Silas playing in the toddler area also.

California Silliness

One evening we took an evening to downtown Disney to eat and hang out. We spent about an hour in the Disney store just having fun. I think we had quite the crowd looking at us as we tried on various hats. Here are some pictures of our adventure.


Nathan is wearing a "goofy" hat and pulling on the ears. He thought it was pretty funny.


What a cute Minnie hat.......

Disney!

We had an absolute blast at Disney! We weren't really sure if Silas would enjoy it or not, because he doesn't know all of the characters. Since we don't really watch much TV or movies, we did have some books with Mickey and Minnie and so we had been reading them to him so he would be familiar with it.

Well, as soon as we got to Disney, we saw a line for Mickey Mouse and asked him if he wanted to meet him. He immediately said yes, so we stood and waited. As we were waiting, he would randomly start jumping up and down saying, "Nathan is so excited to see Mickey." That is his new thing, anytime he's really excited, he just says that Nathan is. So it is really cute. Anyways, we got to meet a ton of the characters and ride some rides and just enjoy time together. I think Silas's favorite would be Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. He was so excited to see them and we even rode the Pooh ride twice because he wanted to.

So all in all, a good day. Silas didn't have a nap (Nathan fell asleep in the stroller), so it was a pretty early evening and only one meltdown (due to not napping!), so overall not bad! Especially since it was record heat there that day. Here are some pictures.



Ok, meeting Lightning and Mater was a close 2nd to his favorite thing to see!